Wooden Shoe Books & Records, Philadelphia's All-Volunteer Anarchist Collective Bookstore Since 1976

We're Open-ish! We aspire to be open from noon (or earlier) to 10pm, 7 days a week, but... we're all volunteers, and sometimes it just doesn't work out. If you're making a special trip to the Shoe it's a good idea to call ahead to make sure we're open: 215-413-0999

A picture of the front of the Wooden Shoe Books Store

What Is Anarchism? To put it simply, anarchism is the the political philosophy that people are better off making decisions for themselves, and that communities should make decisions for their communities, rather than having any centralized power/governing body do it for them. Furthermore, anarchism is opposed to capitalism and all systems of oppression that attempt to exploit or control.

What Is The Wooden Shoe?Founded in 1976, the Wooden Shoe is an all-volunteer, collectively-run, anarchist book store. Functioning within a system which we oppose, we seek to be an example of one way that things can function without anyone commanding or forcing us to think or act a certain way. We have no bosses, managers, or employees, and make all of our decisions through consensus rather than majority-rule voting so as to empower those involved. We also identify as an infoshop, meaning that we serve as a space for people to gather, learn, and find out more about like-minded activities happening in their communities.

We host events in our space on a regular basis, including author events, skill--shares, and poetry/performance events, and more! We are always interested to hear event proposals from like-minded folks. send us an email

Get Involved!

Promotion posters, see text below for details

"The Peoples Computer"

We have an Internet-connected computer available for free public use (sorry; no printer) Here's our public-use Policy.